One of the senior pupils from St  Joseph’s Academy Kilmarnock, submitted the article below to the Galloway Diocese magazine about the whole school Mass recently celebrated for Saint Joseph’s Day the feast of their patron saint.

On 19th of March, the Feast of Saint Joseph, all 700 pupils and staff of St Joseph’s Academy, Kilmarnock, gathered to take part in a Mass to celebrate our patron saint. The service was led by Father McGrattan, Father Chambers and Father Kitchen, altar servers Michael Duff, Hamish Campbell and John Savage. The school’s vocal group led the hymns. The Mass was a joyful occasion for everyone to gather together and celebrate our faith with a true sense of community and school spirit. It was only the second whole school Mass celebrated in the new St Joseph’s Academy building and was the first with our new Head Teacher, Mr Kane. Father McGrattan opened the Mass by encouraging all to be ‘protectors’ like Saint Joseph was to Our Lady and Jesus. The first and second readings were delivered by our Head Boy (James Johnston) and Head Girl (Kiera Ovens), the Psalm was sung by Morven Campbell (S6) and the bidding prayers were delivered by a representative from each year group. In his homily, Father Kitchen produced a packet of Jacob’s Cream Crackers – which was met with great wails of laughter. However, behind this item was a thought-provoking message: the idea was that the crackers did what they said on the pack, and so do the pupils of St Joseph’s Academy.